Good morning, everybody. If you
will, let's open up to Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Lord willing, next Sunday we'll
have a meal following the messages. Hope I remember to remind you
again, bring what you like. Psalm 67. My title is not in my text that
I want to focus on, but it just follows right after. And I thought
it was perfect. I don't want to be provocative,
but I do want to provoke thought. I want people to see a title.
I don't get a title and then get a message. That's wanting
to have something to say and finding a word of God to have
it to prove your point. That's a horrible way of coming
up with messages. Find Christ in the text and then
if we get a title, maybe, maybe not. or just Psalm 67, leave
it alone, that's what your text is. But I want to be real short
this morning. I've worked real hard at that.
I think it'll be, I'm hoping, I've tried a lot of different
things. I hope this will be good for you. I want to be brief and
I want to be as plain as I can be. When Peter preached and there's
5,000 saved, you can read that whole sermon in a minute and
a half. So if it'd be just a couple words
and the Lord's pleased to bless it and keep our attention and
open our hearts up, he'll bless it. And I hope so. Tom, my message is Christian
health care. I hear the word Christian tossed
around as much as I hear hey or hello. And health care, I
hear that a whole lot. Everybody talks about their doctor's
appointments and their illnesses and their concerns of their body.
Christian healthcare. Look here at verse two, Psalm
67, verse two. That thy way may be known upon
earth, thy saving health among all nations. The Lord has a saving
health. He gives us health. He makes
us whole. He makes us complete, truly healthy,
because we're sick. I remember last year, Kimberly
got sick, and I was talking to my boss at work, He said, I'll
pray for complete and total healing. I said, don't. One, where'd you
get that from? What mantra of religion did you
get that phrase? And do you know what that even
means? If she's made complete and total, complete and total
healing, that means she's made like Christ and she's going to
be happy and I'll be happy for her, but I want to keep her for
a little while. I want a wife for a few more decades if he'll
be pleased. Lord heals. He has a health care.
Do you know that? We're in him. We're sick. He's a great physician. He heals
us. And it says there in the beginning
of verse two, that, that thy way may be known upon earth.
Well, this, this, this saving health that all the nations are
going to be made to see. Something's got to happen. It
says that something's gonna take place before this happens. But
what's the first thing in this? and this health that's being
made whole, this truly healthy that we need to know about. Look
here in verse one. David writes here in Psalm 67,
verse one, God be merciful unto us. God be merciful unto us. I know everyone wants to be blessed.
We'll get to that in a minute. But the first thing sang in this
song here and how the Lord's gonna get glory through all the
nations, and they're gonna declare he's king, and he's gonna receive
all praises, is for him to be merciful to us. Mercy. Mercy. Do we remember what mercy
is, you young people? Or old people? Not getting what
you deserve. It was something we deserved,
and mercy's us not getting that. That's that. Paul said in Romans
6, the wages of sin is death. A wage is something you earn.
If you go to work and you get a job and you give your time,
your skill, and your ability for however many hours, the employer
pays you. That's your wage. You earned
it. It's right. That's just normal. Don't think nothing of it. You're
not guilty when you go get your paycheck on Friday. Well, you
worked for it, that's what you get. I wish mankind wouldn't
be surprised when they meet a holy God and the wages of our sin
and our hatred of Christ and not believing him is worthy of
eternal death and damnation. Paul just worded it real shortly,
the wages of sin or death. Now, where'd he get that from?
Turn over to Ezekiel 18, to the right a few books, Ezekiel 18.
If you get to Daniel, you went too far. Ezekiel 18, verse 4. The Lord's speaking through Ezekiel
here to the children of Israel. Ezekiel 18, verse 4. Behold,
all souls are mine. As the soul of the Father, so
also the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. It shall die an eternal death.
We need eternal life, don't we? How are we going to live? Verse
5, But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,
and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes
to idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's
wife, neither hath come near to a minstress woman, and hath
not oppressed any, but hath restored the debtor to his pledge, and
hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry,
and hath covered the naked in his garment. He that hath not
given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that
hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, he hath executed truth
judgment, true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my
statutes, and hath kept my judgments to deal truly. That's a lot. All that. He is just. He shall surely live, saith the
Lord God. Who is that man? I hope that
rules out everybody born of Adam. Did something get you in that? Anything? He's the Holy One, isn't He?
Paul goes on, he says there in Romans 6, the soul that sinnetheth
shall die. He goes, but the gift of God
is eternal life. Tell me about that. I need some
mercy. How's this gonna be right? Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. How can this be just? That's
a good health care program, but somebody's got to pay for it.
Ain't nothing free. You get that? Grace is us getting
something that we didn't deserve, freely given. It's freely given
to us on our part. That come at a great cost across
blood, doesn't it? How can we be made that just
man? We have to be in Christ and through him, through his
birth, his life, and his death, and his payment for sin, his
resurrection. That's how we're made just, we're
in him. He gets all the glory for that, you see that? How could that be legitimate?
He had to be made sin, who knew no sin. And then that wage was
his. My wage that I earned, I earned
all of it, I did it. And it was laid on him. He took
that. I can't do that for somebody
else. That's not possible with man. Somebody else murders somebody,
I can't go sit in that jail cell for him and actually take the
guilt. I can't do that. God can. What's impossible with
man, all things possible with God. And he bore me, that feminine
noun, sin. A bride's a feminine noun too,
isn't it? He bore his bride and we were made the righteousness
of God in him. How can I be all these things
in Ezekiel 18 that do that and you can live? It's gotta be in
him. I have to be attached to him,
I have to be married to him, I have to be given his name and
his life and his robe of righteousness and his smell. We gotta smell
like him. The Lord said, that's what I'm
gonna do. You can't do that. I can't. Because he wanted to,
didn't he? We need mercy. We need mercy. You can't cry out for mercy if
you ain't done nothing wrong. I mean, you might be able to get a little
bit of pardon or something. Like, well, there's a couple of things I
didn't do that was just great. I'm a T-total enemy. Man said that one time, said,
I never did hate God. You didn't hate your God. We'll
look next hour. This is the God. He delights to show mercy. And
that's what we need. Complete mercy. That Pharisee
prayed to himself. And you know what he said? What
did the Pharisee say? All the things he did. Well,
you know what I've done? Now, I've done this and I've
done that, and I fasted twice a week, and I've planted churches
in poor countries, and I, he didn't say all those things,
but he said if we was him, wouldn't we think of things we'd do? Put
it in our, let's put it in our shoe leather. Not a theological
fact. God be with us and show us us. I did good things. I ain't like
everybody else. Now, I've done some bad stuff,
but for the most part, And I thank you, God, for letting me air
my wonderfulness in front of you. We laugh, it's us. If we own mirrors, we've seen
that Pharisee. God says so. What would the other
one do, that mafioso, that criminal? He cried out, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. And the Lord said, one of those
men went down to his house, justified it was that one. Others will say, Lord, think
of all the things we've done for you. We've cast out demons.
We went down to the food bank and fed poor people. We did good
stuff. He said, get away from me, I
never knew you. And then the other ones said,
he said, you fed me when I was hungry. You come visit me in
prison. Lord, when did we see you in prison? I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't remember none of that.
He said, you did at least these, you done it to me. Buddy, the
Lord delights to show mercy, but on our side, it's gotta be
revealed in us that we're guilty and we need mercy. Why would
you ask for something you don't need? I don't need two cycle
oil. I've got 10 little containers.
That'll probably last me 30 years down in my basement. I went to
go buy one the other day and I had a whole stockpile. I don't
need it. People say, well, I'd like to have some mercy. You
need it? You cry out for it? Lord's gonna show us we need
mercy. Then we call out, Lord, we need mercy. And you know,
that's a great grace of God to show us that we need mercy. If he'd do it, we'd have a whole
different attitude on everything we do. It would affect us in
everything we do in this life. It'll affect how you deal with
SDG&E. That's called God working. If
I did something, you might memorize a line, and you might recall
it once a month. If the Lord does something, you're
gonna be able to tell. What's the first step in Christian healthcare?
A need for health. We're sick, that great physician,
he's gotta be merciful, he's gotta take our case. And if somebody's
really sick, he takes all cases. Back in our text here in Psalm
67, here's step two. Verse one. It's good to take these things
in little bits where there's punctuation. and consider it,
God tells us to. Look at the end of verse one,
selah. That's a musical notation to take a breath. You know, sometimes
you're singing, and it ain't in the music to stop a little
bit, but that one playing the piano goes, I gotta breathe too.
I'm singing along, that's why I said if you're gonna play something,
sing with it. You gotta kinda catch your breath a little bit.
That's a musical term for that, but we ought to stay there and
catch our breath. Lord says, pause, consider this deeply. So it's good for us to go these
little bits at a time. Verse one, God be merciful unto
us. We need mercy. And bless us. Bless us. Don't just only be
merciful to us, bless us. What is it to be blessed? Is
it a bumper sticker? He is greater than I. and all
the catchphrases that mankind comes up to show how good I was
that I spent $2.99 and bought a bumper sticker of what church
I go to on my back glass. Is that blessed? Is having money
in the bank or having all your children at home and everybody
happy and you don't owe IRS nothing and law ain't after you, nobody's
breathing down your neck, is that blessed? Is our eyes bugging
out with fatness, is that blessed? David said he was jealous, wasn't
he? I said, boy, I got it easy. Ain't nobody persecutin' them.
He said, I was jealous and that bothered me until I went to the
house of the Lord and I saw their end. What is it to be blessed?
Here in Psalm 32, if you wanna look with me. Verse one, Psalm 32, one. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covered, who there's therefore now no
condemnation. The emotionalism of that and the feelings that
are associated to that, it does not matter. There's days I'll
be overwhelmed with just amazement that this is even possible, and
there's days I'm overwhelmed with joy, and it's a fearful thing.
I always put away our sin, just in awe. There's times I don't
even have a reaction to it, but it's so. That's what the comfort
is. It don't matter what I think, feel, or my security and my assurance
in that, it matters that God said it. Not me, Him. If I'm worried about it, I'm
worried about me. I'm looking to me, I'm not looking to Him.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there's no guile. The Lord doesn't impute
iniquity. Do we remember what that means,
imputation? It's an accounting term. It's a declaration of what's
there. So if you start with elementary
math with little kids, if Johnny has three apples, he can't give
somebody five apples, he ain't got five apples. But just saying
Johnny has three apples, that's imputation. You're just saying
what's there. I didn't put three apples in
Johnny's account. I'm not a banker. I just said
there's three apples there. That's imputation. The Lord will
not look upon me and see any apples, any sin. He won't account
them and he ain't even going to remember it anymore. Why?
There's none there. It's been put away as far as
the East is from the West. Gone. Gone. Turn over to Psalm
103 if you want to see it. Look here in verse 10. Look at verse seven first. This
is where we're getting into it. I hope the Lord blesses us in
these things. He says, he's made known his
ways unto Moses and his acts unto the children of Israel.
I don't want to just see him work. I don't want to just see the
Lord build a local assembly here with 2,000 people in it. I don't
want to just see the Lord save people and give them a new creation
and a whole new person. I don't want to just see the
acts. I want to know his ways. I want to know him. I want to
have the mind of Christ in me. Don't you? I don't want to just see the lame
walk. I want this lame man to walk. I want to know about it. I want to know he did it. Look
at verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. That wage
we earned, that didn't land on us. For as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear
him. That mercy we asked for, that
first part, will be merciful unto us. That mercy we need is
higher than the heavens. A great sinner needs a great
savior, don't they? As far as the east is from the
west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As far
as the east is, he says, from the ends of the earth. Where's
the end of the earth? We're on a globe. That's right. How far is it? You can go north
and eventually you'll hit a pole and you'll start going south.
If I go east, I can keep going east for eons and I'm never going
to start going west if I keep going east. It's gone. Forever
gone. Forever gone. What would people
do if the Lord's revealed this to them, if he's been merciful
to them, and he's blessed them and showed them that their transgressions
have been put away, they've been put in Christ, and all those
things required of him has been satisfied? Psalm 40, verse four
says, blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. We
trust him. How could you trust him? You
believe him. And that's the Lord's doing too, we believe on him.
And he said so, and I believe it. I'm wrong. He said so, I
believe. He's right. He said so, I believe.
He saved the people. Gave them a love for Christ,
because he first loved them. And he's going to keep us, no
matter what, and be made just like him, conform to his image.
I don't want to go to heaven. I want to go to where Christ
is, what mankind calls heaven. I want to go to Him, capital
H Heaven. If that's in a tent in a desert
somewhere, Lush jungle, I don't care. I'll be where he is They trust him I'll tell you
what people that the Lord's worked in they trust him and they rejoice
in him They rejoice in him the blessed rejoice and to the whole
world We turn over Matthew 5 What this world says is somebody's
blessed and Ain't nothing like what the Lord says a blessed
person is. If we saw somebody, the Lord said, that's a blessed
person. That's mine. You'd say, that's everything
opposite of what I would call blessed. It looks like they're
in shambles. Yeah, we've decreased and he's
increased that now. From the mind that's descended
of Adam, from our flesh, a true blessed person does not look
like someone that we would naturally call blessed. Look here in Matthew
5 verse 2. And he opened his mouth and taught
them. Lord, teach us this. I want to
be taught something. I don't know everything. Teach
me what a blessed man is, Lord. Verse three, blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness. for they shall be filled. Lest
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Lest are the pure
in heart, what heart? The new heart he gives us, for
they shall see God. Lest are the peacemakers, For
they shall be called the children of God. That's what the meek,
Moses was the meekest man on earth, ain't got nothing to do
with weakness. I thought of them, they call them the minor prophets.
I was reading a lot of Jonah this week. I wouldn't tell Jonah
he's too minor. He may bop us one time. What
says the peacemaker? People say, well, people want
to make peace. They don't like going to war. They're weak. No, they're
not. Peace has been made in their hearts. How can somebody show
mercy unless the Lord showed us mercy? How could we love unless
the Lord loves us? We don't know nothing about it.
How could we want peace? if we never experienced peace.
We've just been fighting from birth, either to win God's favor
or to net him to us or to get along or whatever. Just constant
contention all the time. If we ever have peace, we'll
want peace. We want to make more of it. I guess it's good. You're
going to love it. Peacemaker. They should be called
the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of
God. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you. Who's the blessed
person? Well, you're probably gonna get
reviled. And persecute you, you're gonna be persecuted. And shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely. And not just cause
you're mean and they ought to say mean things about you, but
for my sake, for the gospel's sake, for Christ's sake, because
of who you believe. You tell people God's on his
throne and he saved a people and them people are sinners and
they know about it. And they're gonna keep being sinners, and
the outside of the cup ain't gonna clean up as much as they
wish it would, and they're still gonna fall, and they're still
gonna do terrible things. And God's gonna save them anyway, and he's
gonna be glorified in it. People, cut your throat for that. Now,
if you have a spaghetti dinner and say, we all love Jesus, that's
fine. That ain't fellowship, that's fellow ocean treaders,
just waiting to go down. The ones in that boat, buddy,
the ones in the water don't like it. Lord said that's a blessing. It ain't fun. He said it's a
blessing. He's blessed. And what we're
going to do with all that? Now we're just going to cry all
the way home and sad because of our plot in life? Verse 12. Rejoice
and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for
so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. They persecuted
me, the Lord said. What do you think is going to
happen to you? What do you think? That's a blessed person. Step
one, what is it? In this healthcare, we need mercy. Step two, Lord bless us. Not
the way we want to be blessed, bless us the way it pleases you
to bless us. Not according to what my wants
are, according to your wants. Now back in our text, Psalm 67
verse one. This is to the chief musician
on Neganoth. That's a multiple stringed instruments. Could you imagine? But there
are some talented musicians there and they get to sing this. It
don't rhyme well because it's been translated to English, but
we'll sing this one day. God be merciful to us, unto us,
and bless us. And cause his face to shine upon
us, Selah. Stop, cause your face to shine. Be merciful to us, Lord. I want
to have mercy. I need mercy. I need to be blessed. I need to be blessed. I don't
need to have a haughty, proud spirit. I need to be brought
down. I don't need to be hard and judgmental. I need to be
merciful. I don't need to want to take everybody to task and
correct every little wrong I see. I need to be a peacemaker. I
need mercy. I need to be blessed. And I need
to see his face. I need to rejoice and trust him. And I want to see his face. I
want his face to shine upon me. I want his face to shine upon
us. And what is that? When is that? That's daily, isn't
it? Daily, I need to see the Lord exalted, high and lifted
up. I need to see him on his throne. What tears the day would
hold, what anxiety there would be in not looking to a sovereign
God on his throne, and I could just be at the roll of the dice
for the rest of the day. Airplane might fall and land
on my head. I need to see him interceding for me first thing
in the morning, it's good. Seek him early, while he may
be found. Call on him, wise dear. Before I roll out of bed, Lord,
let me know today is ordained just for me, for my good and
for your glory. That's the important part. Whatever
comes to pass. I need to see that. I need to
see your face in all these things. I need that daily, but to be
known, I want to know him as he knows me, but I can't do that
yet, can I? In eternity, I need to see his
face. Not his courts of judgment. Not his law that I've done nothing
but break my whole life. I need to see him. I need to
be made like him. I need to smell like him. I want
to think like him. I need to think like him. I need
to be taught by him. And we're going to have to go
through all this darkness first. And then we'll have that mercy
revealed to us. We'll experience it now. We have an earnest payment. We got a down payment on these
things. We have faith. We believe. That's evidence of
things not seen. Lord's been merciful to us because
we know we've cried out for it. And he's blessed us. He has. I've lacked nothing. And I know
in that final day I'll lack nothing because I'm in him. I know that. And that's daily, we've had moments
of darkness and throughout a lifetime we'll have seasons of darkness
and we have this life, which we're born in darkness. He reveals
his face to us and then finally we'll come out of this world
and there'll be no more darkness and no more tears. Said Isaiah
54, for a small moment I've forsaken thee. Lord forsook me, Ty's about
17 years old, 18 years old, and then he revealed his son to me.
You get that? He wasn't forsaken. He's using
words we can understand. He hadn't revealed himself to
me. I was in darkness until then. And then with great
mercies, he says, I'll gather thee. In a little wrath, I hid
my face from thee for a moment. That was the whole time before
he revealed himself to me. And then that's now, too, after
I've known him. There's times I just feel so
dark and down, or way worse, way worse than feeling dark and
down. There's a lot of times I'm feeling real happy. Everything's
going smooth, and I ain't looking at him. He's hid his face from me for
a moment, but with everlasting kindness, I will have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. I'll keep you. We've asked him,
and he said he'll do it. You're gonna ask me to do it.
What will we see when the Lord shows us mercy and blesses us
and makes his face to shine upon us? Well, it's not a what, it's
a who. Who? Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
his sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. You ever
step outside and it's cold in the shade, and then you step
in the sun that warms you up? If He shined His light, His face
in our hearts, you're gonna have a burning heart. It's gonna be
warm. To give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What's His face? To see God's glory, the glory
of His grace magnified on the person and work of His Son. That's
it. Who gets all the glory for that?
The one that shows mercy, that blesses and that reveals, All
the salvation and acceptation, being accepted, is in him. God
does that, and he's manifest in the body. The Father's a spirit,
and the Holy Ghost is a spirit, and they're manifest. This great
Godhead is equal. It's not, we always think, naturally,
mankind thinks there's the Father, and then he has a son, and then
somewhere over here's a secretary, or something, that's the Holy
Ghost. No, those three are one, and it's manifest in the human
body, and we're gonna look him face to face. Look him in the
eye, being made like him. That'll be a day one. Prove number
six, and I'll let you go, number six. Verse 22. I hope we remember these things
from Exodus also. Remember Moses said, I can't
talk when the Lord said, who made the mouth? He allowed that
to happen. It would be a picture of Christ.
He said, I'm going to tell you, and you're going to tell Aaron, and
Aaron's going to say it for you. Remember? Well, here's that coming to pass.
Number six, verse 22. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his son, saying, On this
wise shall ye bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. I will bless them. Let's pray
together. Father, be merciful to us. You revealed to us our sin, not
believe in Christ. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief.
Be merciful and bless us. Give us a broken and contrite
heart that you came to heal. And make us forgiving and long-suffering
and peacemakers. Oh, teach us to mourn and to
lean on your son. And cause your face, the face
of our Redeemer, to shine on us. Let us look to Him, Lord,
and keep us as you promised you will. It's because of Christ
we ask it. Amen. Alright, we'll meet back
at 1030.